Custom essay on The contribution of women to the massive expansion of the Japanese economy in the 1950/60’s

A number of studies about the situation of female workers found a special rhythm of female labor. The absence of women’s organizational structure was not due to the lack of willing workers, but due to male indifference. Many research approaches have also put questions about “class” and “gender” in one row, which has promoted their fruitful rapprochement. However, on the other hand, instead of “and” there was often “or”, which led to the fact that both categories of social disparities became competitive factors, one of which was finally perceived as the main one. Thus, there was created a false historical subject who chooses between the opportunity to feel and act “first of all, as a woman” or “first of all, as a worker.” But the female employee did not leave her femininity outside of work. Self-esteem, perception of the world, forms of communication, and patterns of behavior were the result of intertwining of these two features.

Conclusion
Thus, the most important feature of the Japanese model of economic development was the emphasis on the human factor, the disclosure of the creative potential of an individual. This was facilitated by features of the Japanese national character which included high adaptability, desire for learning, ability to solve difficult economic and social problems in the most rational way. This factor also mostly predetermined the further development of Japan (Bishop, 84).
1950/60’s present the period of post-war development of Japan which became the starting point in changing the status of women in the society. Recently, the Japanese society has experienced serious changes caused by the intensification of the social role of women, changing the economic position of a woman, her attitude toward marriage; trends toward later marriage and reduced fertility appear. Today 41% of employees in today’s Japan are women, and most of them are married. Trying to fulfill her potential at work, a woman faces many challenges: how to combine career, family, child-rearing in her life. All these questions concern women all over the world. In addition, there are typically “Japanese” problems: labor shortages due to the falling fertility rates, problems in the field of social insurance, economic recession and others. custom essay
According to the opinion of many experts, this phenomenon reflects the state of the aging of Japanese society, when women are having fewer children. As the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare reported recently, Japan’s birthrate fell to a record low level. In 2006, a Japanese woman of reproductive age had an average of 1.28-born baby (in 1950 it was 3.65), that is one hundredth less than the previous year. The reason probably is in the too rapid transition of Japanese society from the traditional state to socio-emancipated one, caused by the need to include women into the processes of transformation of the economy, which occurred in 50-60`s of the 20th century (Lee, 186).

Work Cited:

Bishop, Beverley. Globalization and women in the Japanese workforce‎, Routledge, 2004.
Charles, Maria, Buchmann, Marlis, Halebsky, Susan, Powers, Jeanne M, and Marisa Smith. “The Context of Women’s Market Careers: A Cross-National Study”. Work and Occupations 28 (2001): 371 – 396.
Flath, David. The Japanese economy, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Forsberg, Aaron. America and the Japanese Miracle: The Cold War Context of Japan’s Postwar Economic Revival, 1950-1960. The University of North Carolina Press, 2000.
Kravdal, Øystein and Ronald R. Rindfuss. “Changing Relationships between Education and Fertility: A Study of Women and Men Born 1940 to 1964.” American Sociological Review 73 (2008): 854 – 873.
Lee, Kristen Schultz. “Gender Beliefs and the Meaning of Work Among Okinawan Women.” Gender & Society 20 (2006): 382 – 401.
Lee, Kristen Schultz, Tufiş, Paula A., and DuaneF. Alwin. “Separate Spheres or Increasing Equality? Changing Gender Beliefs in Postwar Japan.” Journal of Marriage and Family 72.1 (2010): 184-201.
Macnaughtan, Helen. Women, Work and the Japanese Economic Miracle: The case of the cotton textile industry, 1945-1975. Routledge, 2009.